The Collective’s Interest In Metacafe

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD says that The Collective is interested in Metacafe’s ad sales infrastructure and team. One of the things I keep hearing, especially from guys like Philip DeFranco, is that people who know YouTube well often try to succeed outside of YouTube, because the site’s known issues tend to make it hard to make a living at times. With a site like Metacafe, The Collective can cut deals for talent that don’t have to be subject to the mad tinkering of YouTube. This is why you see guys like DeFranco and Epic Meal Time go with Revision3 to generate more ad money and nail down deals not possible with YouTube.

Kafka mentions Machinima and Maker Studios as examples of independent channels that make their own deals. In other words, it’s good to have YouTube for exposure and the occasional lottery jackpot, but being on solid ground means working outside of the YouTube Partner structure and being able to survive when YouTube wages war on the present.